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The ideas of the Sadducees concerning the resurrection were low and debasing. The true and just conceptions of it, derived from the Scriptures and the power of God, are lofty and exalting. They are calculated to have a practical effect, and lead every one, who does know the Scriptures and the power of God, to contemplate his own state: and consider, how far he is preparing for such a kingdom; for the presence, the immediate presence of Him who "cannot look upon evil," in whose eyes even the stars are not pure." Those who belong to it, are as the angels of God. A daily reflection upon this great truth, should lead all to examine themselves, whether they are living as those who have so high a destination held forth to them: living, and seeking to live more and more under the influence of that Spirit which alone can renew the heart, and make it meet for a kingdom, the short but significant description of which at once shows its difference from this present world, for it is represented as a kingdom wherein "dwelleth righteousness."

31. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,*

32. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Our Lord here points out, how a proper attention to their own scriptures should have satisfied every Jew who professed to receive them, and therefore ought to have satisfied the Sadducees, that there is a resurrection of the dead. The scriptures revealed

4 Ex. iii. 6.

God to them, as the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Yet Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, being like other men, strangers and pilgrims upon earth, had been long ago buried in their graves. To suppose, therefore, that these, although taken from this world, and returned to dust, were really extinct and lost to existence, was to suppose that God had distinguished himself as the God of the dead: of those who had no consciousness of his regard, and could return him no allegiance. Whereas the doctrine of scripture is, that "all live to him:"5 for "whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: so that living or dying, we are the Lord's." 6

The force of our Lord's words came home to the conscience and understanding of the people who stood by, and who had been accustomed from their usual teachers to instruction of a very different kind. We are told,

33. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

But we are told nothing further. We are not told that they were converted. To such an effect something more is necessary, than an argument which cannot be refuted or gainsaid.

WE need no argument to convince us of the truth which the Sadducees denied. From our youth

5 This clause of the argument is added in St. Luke's account of the discourse.

6 Rom. xiv. 8.

up we have professed to "look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." But we also may be awakened to useful reflection by this discourse of Jesus with the Sadducees. We may

be brought to inquire, whether we are so leading our present life, that it may be a preparation for a state where they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. We may be brought to consider, whether, whilst we confess with our lips the resurrection of the dead, we are practically denying it, by living for this world alone, instead of remembering that "here we have no continuing city," but are waiting for the coming of the Lord." "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." He "will receive them unto himself, that where he is, they may be also:" and "so they shall ever be with the Lord." 9

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7 Luke xii. 27.

9 1 Thess. iv. 17.

John xiv. 3.

LECTURE XCIV.

THE LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOUR.

MATT. xxii. 34-40.

34. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38. This is the first and great commandment.

The question thus replied to, was asked with no good purpose. The lawyer did not seek our Lord with a desire of instruction, but tempting him. Divine wisdom converts evil into good. Our Lord, in answer to this insidious question, has left a reply which is to be the rule of Christians in all ages; the rule to walk by, the rule to examine themselves by. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. Not because the commandments of God can be separately weighed, as if one was more important than another. But because this, the love of God, is the principle of all obedience, the foundation of all duty: the regulating

movement of our hearts and lives.

If this is wanting, every thing is wanting: if this is really present, every thing else will follow.

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We cannot doubt, but this love would be the natural feeling of the heart, if mankind had not been estranged from God by sin, and alienated from the proper object of their desire. It is "the carnal mind which is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God." What therefore is foreign from our corrupt nature, must be produced in it by the power of divine grace; and He to whom we owe a perfect and undivided love, must add this to all his other mercies, that he engrave that love on our hearts, and "write it on our minds."

39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

2

All the revelation of himself and of his will, which God has vouchsafed to man, is comprehended in these two rules. "For what does the Lord require of thee, O man, but to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God?" The one therefore, we are assured, is like the other. It is like it, in intrinsic excellence. Love of God, which sanctifies every thing which we conceive, or say, or do, is the highest perfection of which our nature is capable. And the love of our neighbour is like unto it. Contemplate it in those who have shown it most completely in those who have given up, for the sake of the interests of others, their own 2 Micah vi. 8.

' Rom. viii. 7.

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